White Crow
by ink'n'bones
Summary: AU. One year ago he, his family, and his friends were murdered. A year later on the eve of Halloween he returns from the grave with the help of a mysterious white crow. Now he wanders through the dark city of Amity to exact vengeance upon their murderers.
1. Prologue: Waking Crow

**Summary:** **One year ago he, his family, and his friends were murdered. Now he returns from the grave to exact vengeance upon their murderers with the help of a mysterious white crow.**

**Hoorah!!!! My first fanfic ever!!! And a Danny Phantom fanfic too!! I just wanted to do something different with Danny, so I turned him into the Crow. It's basically TUE (minus Lancer, sorry) but instead of them dying in a horrible accident, they get murdered by some gang members, just like the Crow. So without further ado.... I bring you.... "White Crow"'s prologue, "Waking Crow"!!!!!**

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Prologue:

Waking Crow

Everything hurt. Everything in was in pain. He wanted it to stop, he wanted the pain to go away. The pain was rapidly increasing as if his nerves were coming back to life, and he could hear rain pounding the ground six feet above him. Six feet above the darkness. Realization hit him as to where he was as he scans the cramped darkness. Coffins were never meant for luxury you know. Then fear smacked him right in the head. He banged at the wooden cover, and a silent scream escaped from his lips. He was trying to breath but he couldn't, he could only utter short gasps. His fingernails scratched at the wooden cover, making marks upon the maggot-eaten surface. Blood dripped and dropped from his wounds as he continued to frantically scratch at the wooden surface.

He was desperate to escape the confines of death's enticing embrace. The blood fell to his face as tears flowed from his hollow blue eyes. In the darkness they seemed to glow. There were no pupils in his eyes, but slowly the cloudy, death-induced film began to clear and pupils emerged. Then, they began to turn to a brightly, pale green. He wanted out, and he wanted freedom, but the pain was still there, becoming more and more unbearable. Still clawing at the coffin door like an animal eager to escape its cage he finally succeeded in his endeavour and emerged from his death-induced prison to the open embrace of the avalanche of grave dirt outside.

He flailed at the dirt, clawing past mounds and mounds of year-old graveyard dirt.

_Out…I want out…Let me out… Let…me…be…free…_

Rain drops poured down onto the earth like frozen stones. His hand appeared first, then an arm, then another hand and arm, all ghostly pale and dirt-covered, they emerged from the graveyard dust. A figure then emerged triumphantly from the ground, sucking in the cold, wet night air. He had awoken. He screamed into the night, the pain now at its zenith. The scream howled through the entire cemetery, echoing off each and every tombstone. The pain finally began to dull, but it was still too much to bear and he fell to his knees sobbing.

He finally realized who he was, shuddering at each fleeting memory that flashed in his mind. On the tombstone, a crow rested, as if it was waiting just for him. It watched him suffer in pain, convulsing at the oncoming onslaught of memory fragments, curious and impatient. There was something odd about that crow. Instead of being black as midnight, it was white as freshly fallen snow and its eyes were a pale green, the same as his. Only its small beak was black like night. It continued to watch him, still curious, still impatient. The boy was still sobbing on his knees, hugging himself, trying to tell himself it was all dream. His onyx black hair that was slicked with rain, started to fade, slowly turning from gray to white. His hair was now white as a full moon, and as white as the crow that now rested on the tombstone behind him.

_CAW! CAW!_

The boy snapped up and turned around to look at the crow. Whimpering and frightened like a wounded bird he looked at the crow with sad eyes that asked, "_Why_?". The crow's eyes answered his question with, "_yOu kNoW wHy_." His hollow green eyes followed the crow's movements as it hopped on the tombstone. A minute passed before it stopped and started to peck at the headstone with its beak. The boy then finally saw what was written on the stone. His eyes widened in shock. He hugged himself again, holding himself tight as if he would fall to pieces. Shivers erupted through his entire being.

Suddenly the crow flew off the tombstone and landed on the boy's shoulder. The boy turned his head to look at it again. It again flew off this time to the cemetery's iron gates which weren't that far off from where his grave lay. The bird called to him, beckoning. He stood up and turned to look at the bizarre thing. Slowly, his feet began to move toward the crow and the gates. He stared at it with widened, unsure eyes, not knowing what was going to happen. Eventually he made it to the gates, his hollow, green eyes still centered on the bird. The crow sitting on top on the wrought-iron gates, called angrily again to the boy. It was still impatient.

"I'm here…you don't have to yell…" he said rubbing his throat as his vocal cords sprang back to life. He grasped the black iron bars of the gates, and then looked up at the rainy night sky as he climbed them. It was like escaping from Hades itself, and crawling to the surface. Skillfully he flipped over the gates to the other side, not looking back at the grave he had left behind.

_Daniel Fenton_

_1991-2008_

_Beloved Son, Brother _

_And Friend_

He landed with grace on the other side. The crow flew down from the gates and landed on the ground before Danny. He just stood there confused and lonely, his head titled to the wet ground. Lifting up his hands, he examined them, and to his surprise, the cuts he sustained from clawing the coffin earlier were gone. The crow hopped ahead towards the dark city ahead, calling to Danny. Danny was still in awe on how all the horrible gashes had healed so quickly. The crow realizing that Danny was not following it, sped toward him, cawing and crowing at him to follow. Danny snapped out of his reverie and looked at the bird. It in turned stared at him. Its eyes saying,

"_cOmE, tHeRe Is MuCh To Do…_"

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**Just so you know,** **I decided to make Danny 17 years old in this story. It is an alternate universe after all. **

**CORRECTION!: I originally put that Danny is 17 and was born in 1981, so I basically screwed that one up. Man I suck at mental math, but at least I have a calculator now and I have corrected the mistake. Also a big thank you to Ali Phantom for being my first reviewer and for spotting that mistake.**

**Thank you for reading and good night everybody!!!**

**~Review please!!!!**


	2. Chapter 1: Reminiscent Crow

**Yay!!! Ch. 1 is up!!! As you can tell I'm gonna have Valerie involved and I'm gonna put her in the "Sarah" role in my little story. (If you want to know who Sarah is go watch the Crow.) Also, this chapter is going to center on her and how's life treating her. Don't worry Danny will have his own chapter and many others next time. I just wanted to introduce one of the main players.**

**I don't think I did this in the prologue but I have to say Danny Phantom and all related characters belong to Butch Hartman. I guess the cop sort of belongs to me. He's definitely based off the cop in the Crow. (holy crap! I forgot his name! The Crow hasn't been on cable in a while _ GAH!!!!) But with out further ado I give you Ch. 1 Reminiscent Crow of White Crow...**

**Enjoy... :}**

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Chapter 1

Reminiscent Crow

Valarie pulled back her frizzy black hair into a ponytail and slammed her fist onto her already cracked alarm clock. The cracks were from the other times she had to get up early for her job. A morning haze was spread across the sky making it seem like a lazy day. She climbed out of her creaky bed and slipped into her old bunny slippers. They were worn from wearing them almost every single day since her mother had gotten them for her for Christmas five Christmases ago. Though this was back when her mother was still alive and well. Unfortunately it would be the last Christmas they would spend as family ever. And to think that the Streets weren't as dangerous as they were today. Valerie would often try not to think about her mother's untimely death, but it would always somehow creep back into her subconscious. But this was no time for reminiscing about happier times, the African-American girl had to get ready for work.

She quickly showered and got dressed into her uniform. Valerie hated that uniform. Oh how she hated it. She hated it with a passion of three-thousand brightly burning suns. The dark-skinned teen had lost count on how many times she had wanted to torch it with a flamethrower. Her uniform consisted of black pants, a light blue visor, and an electric blue and lemon yellow button-down shirt, with a bright red name tag that screamed "HELLO MY NAME IS VALERIE GREY, HOW MAY I HELP YOU TODAY?!" Of course, this was the standard issue uniform given to regular employees at Nasty Burgers everywhere. Why someone would even think of designing something as awful as that, Valerie would never know. It's not like she had a choice in the matter anyway. This was the only way she could possibly even pay for college. Community college that is.

It wasn't because of her grades, it's just that her family didn't really have the money. Her family, being just her father and her. She couldn't even qualify for a scholarship, mostly because she barely had any extra-curricular activities. Valerie put on her white sneakers and walked by her father's room through the small, cramped hallway that connected her room with the equally as cramped kitchen/living room. When she arrived in the kitchen she found her father drinking a cup of coffee, and eating a danish.

"Morning Val." He mumbled a greeting to his eighteen year old daughter. If anyone had fallen on hard enough times it was the Grey family, especially Edmond Grey. Once, he was a high-paid security expert living happily with his wife and daughter in the wealthy part of town, but after his wife's drive-by murder, he had fallen into depression. Right after his wife's death, a security fiasco happened at Axiom, a weapons company that hired him to outfit them with the latest in security systems. But because of a little faulty wiring and because of a little heist organized by local gangsters, (low-level gangsters that is) a lot of money and advanced weaponry was lost. And Mr. Grey had lost his job and then had to move his young daughter to the cramped two-bedroom apartment in the slums that they now occupied. He was now an unimportant security guard with a low salary at warehouse by the bay.

"Morning Dad." Valerie answered back.

He watched his daughter pull out a cereal box from the creaking cupboard, and a bowl from another cupboard. Unfortunately after she grabbed the bowl, she closed the cupboard door and it fell from its hinges, dropping to the floor. Mr. Grey sighed and so did Valerie. She sat down at the unbalanced wooden table and poured herself some cereal, only getting up to get some milk from the fridge. Valerie started to pour some milk onto her cereal, but instead of a liquid coming out, disgusting solid chunks fell onto her cereal.

"Ugh! Oh great the milk's expired! I swear Jermaine at the 711 is marking the milk with earlier dates!" she exclaimed with disgust. "And it looks like I just lost my appetite…" she made a face at the revolting mess of milk chunks and cheerios.

"Why don't you have the rest of my danish, Pumpkin?" asked her father, "You need to eat something."

"Nah, I'm fine Dad. I'll eat something when I get to work. I'll sneak some fries on my break." Valerie assured her father.

"You know you should really eat something. Come on I got a pretty good tasting danish that I don't think I'll be able to finish." He tempted her with the flimsy pastry by waving it back and forth in front of her.

"Dad I told you I'll be fine, and anyway I lost my appetite from seeing that thing." She motioned to mess of a breakfast that was sitting in front of her. "I'll survive."

"But…"

"But nothing Dad, I'll survive until lunch. Look, its almost eight and I really need to get to work, so bye Dad," she got up from her seat, zipped up her black jacker and started to walk toward the door, "I'll see you later tonight…"

"Valerie!"

"What?!"

"Be careful, remember even though _Devil's Night _was yesterday, it's still dangerous out there." He spoke to his daughter in a serious tone. In Amity, the 30th of October was always called "Devil's Night". It was the night when criminal activity was at its highest and local gangsters would be running rampant throughout the city. Valerie looked at her father with a look of determination.

"Don't worry Dad. I WILL be fine." And with that she left her dingy little apartment heading off to work. When she left her father sighed and said,

"I hope so…"

Walking down the stairs, Valerie was alone in her thoughts. _Yesteraday was_ Devil's Night_, it's been a year since it happened_ she thought. She still remembered the headline "_6 FOUND DEAD IN APARTEMENT COMPLEX_". Finally she made it down the long flights of stairs and exited her apartment building, still lost in her memories of a family and friends she only started to get to know until they were gone in flash. The memories were painful at the end, where she only saw police lights flashing, ambulance sirens blaring, and their lifeless bodies being carted away…

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Seventeen-year old Valerie Grey happily hurried toward the Fenton's apartment. Though she only had known the Fenton's and Sam and Tucker for only a couple of months, she had felt like she had known them for years. They were like a second family to her, they worried about her and cared about her like she was their own daughter. Mrs. Fenton was like the mother she never had and Mr. Fenton often reminded her of a big, soft teddy bear. Jazz, their daughter and eldest child was smart and studious and often helped Valerie and Danny, her younger brother with their homework. Though she was in college, the brilliant redhead still lived with her family. Danny Fenton was a shy, sometimes clumsy boy who was Valerie's age. He had bright blue eyes, and dark, ebony hair. He was like a brother to her, always laughing with her and smiling.

_His two best friends Tucker and Sam slowly over time became her friends two. Tucker had extremely short black hair that he often kept hidden under a red beret, blue-green eyes, and dark skin. Valerie would often marvel at how good he was with technology and how he could take a computer apart and put it back together again blindfolded. Danny's other friend Sam was as Valerie often put it, very "anti-establishment". She was a goth with short midnight black hair that had a ponytail on the side, violet eyes, and extremely pale skin. Valerie often wondered how long it took her to apply all that makeup to her face. Sam would always wear all black like she was forever in mourning. Valerie had once asked why she even dresses like that. Sam had just replied, "_I** like** **dressing** like this, **it** **makes** me **feel different**, like my **own individual**._" At first Sam didn't like Valerie and she would often protest when she started hanging out with the three, especially when Valerie would hang out with Danny, but eventually she warmed up to Valerie and they became fast friends. _

_Now Valerie was almost at the apartment complex, but as she briskly walked she watched in amazement at the third ambulance that had passed by her, headed in the same direction that she was heading. _

I hope something bad didn't happen…_Valerie thought to herself. But who was she kidding. This was Amity, the city with the highest crime rate in all of Illinois. Even Detroit had nothing on this empty hole of a city. There may have been countless attempts to clean up the streets, but they never worked, and if they did, the peace didn't last for long. To tell the truth it wasn't the mayor who was in charge of the city, it was the drug dealers, the gangsters, the mob bosses, the criminals. This was their city, and they weren't going to let __**anybody else**__ have it. _

_Soon another ambulance and another police car sped past her, sirens blaring. Something wasn't right, something was definitely amiss, Valerie felt it in her bones. Her brisk walk soon turned into a frantic run toward the Fenton's. She ran and ran until… she had arrived._

_She tried to catch her breath, but couldn't with the sight before her. A whole mess of people were crowded in front of the apartment with reporters trying to get answers out of silent police officers. Valerie pushed with all of her might to push through the crowd of people to see what they gaping at._

_"Let me through! Let me through!" she yelled at the people. But when she got there, she got the shock of her life. Behind police tape, on the cold, hard, concrete ground, surrounded by shattered fragments of glass, laid the bloodied broken body of Danny Fenton. It looked as though he had been stabbed and pushed out a window. His once pure blue eyes were now hollow and lifeless. On his body rested a peculiar playing card. It was the five of hearts, but the way the hearts were painted it looked like they were bleeding. _

_Valerie looked at the ambulances and saw four blanket-covered bodies being wheeled into them. Valerie frantically pushed through the crowd again to get the ambulances, leaving a second glance at Danny's broken body. Tears began to well up in her eyes, _Why? _she thought, _Why them? _She had feared that Tucker and Sam were probably dead too. _Who could have done this? _The salty tears began to cloud her vision and she wiped them from her red eyes. In the corner of her eyes she saw a fifth body being wheeled out of the apartment building. It wasn't covered like the others and various emergency response doctors were trying to stabilize her. Valerie immediately recognized her as Sam. Sam looked like she had just been through hell, her face was bloody, and she was barely conscious. They were trying to get her breathing, pumping air into her bruised lungs. _

_Valerie rushed to Sam only to stopped by a gruff police officer._

_"Hey you can't go there."_

_"But I have too!" She pleaded. "She's my friend!" _

_"Look I'm sorry…"_

_"Please!"_

_"Well…okay…make it quick." He told her. Rushing past the police officer, Valerie went straight to the ambulance that held the suffering form of Samantha Manson, one of her best friends._

_"Sam…?" she asked her convulsing friend, who looked like she was barely breathing._

_"V-V-Valerie…" Sam coughed and blood spurted from her bruised lips. _

_"Don't worry Sam y-you're going to be all right, I-I promise, everything going to be all right…" She cried as she tried to reassure her dying friend. _

_"Valerie…I don't think I can hang on any longer…" _

_"Don't you dare say that Manson!!!" _

_"Miss, it's time to go…" the same gruff police officer who had been waiting outside the ambulance's door suddenly appeared._

_"Don't worry Miss, I'll look after her." The middle-aged African-American man gave her a reassuring smile. With tears in her eyes, Valerie responded,_

_"Thank you…"_

_****************************************************************************************************************************************************_

Valerie shuddered at the horrible memory. She hated it even more than her uniform. Why did all the people that she loved die? Why? She remembered that Sam never came out of surgery, and after thirty hours of suffering she just gave up. Valerie remembered all the tears she had shed that night and how she had cried herself to sleep, not even bothering to go to school for the whole week.

Walking down the empty street she stopped to tie her shoes. As she bent down she heard.

CAW! CAW! CAW!

Her neck snapped around to the source of the cry, and to her surprise a crow was staring straight at her. But not just any crow, this one was different. It was white as freshly fallen snow, except for its small beak that was black as midnight, and it had pale green eyes that seemed to stare right into her soul. For a few moments they looked at each other. The crow looked curious, yet impatient, like it was waiting for something exciting to happen. Valerie continued to stare in awe at the strange creature until the impatient thing finally flew off in a huff.

"Well that was certainly weird…" Valerie said to herself.

Far away in a rundown apartment, a figure huddled in the corner trying not to think about the painful, fleeting memories that penetrated his thoughts. Memories that he wished he didn't remember. Even the happier ones of the life he once had still pained him. Suddenly his face snaps up as a white crow flies through the shattered window. He utters one name, one name only,

"Valerie…"

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**Well that's it for Ch.1. Hope you enjoyed it. Ah yes, don't you love minor cliffhangers? (heaven knows I do!) Next chapter will be a rewind to the night before right after Danny escapes from the cemetery, and the story will continue from there. **

**Other than that...**

**~Review please! **


	3. Chapter 2: Painted Crow

**Sorry this took so long, I was having some writer's block until I downloaded a Smashing Pumpkin's song called "The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning". If you don't know what that song is, it's that song from the Watchmen movie soundtrack that makes everything sound epic. And it does, trust me, it does. Also Danny Phantom and related characters belong to Butch Hartman, the Crow storyline belongs to James O'Barr, and the gangsters I guess belong to me. Other than that I'd like to thank some people who reviewed:**

**~comando**

**~Garnet Sky**

**~BluFox15**

**Thank you so much for reviewing!!! And now without any further ado...I bring you, Chapter 2 of "White Crow", "Painted Crow"! **

**Enjoy. ;}**

**WARNING: This chapter may have some mild swearing in it.**

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Chapter 2:

Painted Crow

_The night before..._

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Rain drops were still falling hard, still pounding the cold, hard ground never endlessly. From behind two very large storm clouds, the faint light of the full moon shone through. Shrouded in darkness and moonlight, slicked with rain and tears that seemed like they would never dry, Danny unconsciously followed the crow towards an unknown destination. The cemetery was a couple miles behind him and it still haunted him. He wondered if he was even still alive. Was he alive or dead? Was he a zombie, a ghost, or was he the victim of a horrible misunderstanding and that he was really alive the whole time. He remembered his family, and his friends. His _family_….his _friends_….

Memories he would have rather have forgotten suddenly flashed into his mind. Both his head and his bones ached as he continued walking. He brushed some of his wet hair out of his tired, hollow eyes. Looking to his surroundings he saw that Amity still had not changed. It was still an endless maze of dark alleyways and dead ends. A labyrinth of hate and passion, crime and jealously. Somewhere inside him, he was sort of glad, that nothing changed, but that feeling was soon snuffed out by his misery. He saw that there were some bums lying in some alleys trying to protect themselves from the merciless rain, and drug dealers and conmen were trying to peddle their wares. Nobody seemed to notice him, even in his unusual clothes which consisted of a maggot-eaten, ragged, black suit that barely hung onto his pale, thin figure. They didn't even seem to notice his unusual snow white hair color.

But in this town, down-trodden, wandering teens with unusual hair colors were not a rarity. Though some of them could probably give Rambo a run for his money. Danny kept following the crow at a distance still wondering where it was leading him. That is until he started to recognize his surroundings. An imposing gothic structure suddenly jutted into view. It looked rundown and abandoned with broken glass everywhere. _Glass_ he thought and painful memories penetrated his mind. _I remember the glass all around me…they were sparkling in the moonlight as I…fell._ He remembered the feelings of weightlessness, like he was flying. Then the unexpected crash to the ground with a bullet in his heart.

The crow flew straight up the building's face right up to a circular broken window on the 10th floor. Danny cranked his neck up to see the crow enter the building through the window. Danny then walked up to the entrance. The door was boarded up with wooden planks. He suddenly remembered a little fact about his life, his family was one of last ones living in the entire building. There were only a handful of people left who still dared to live there, they were fighting the tenant eviction. Everyone else had either left or was bought out by the local gangs. With his bare hands he tore the planks off letting them fall to the ground. The teen cautiously entered the building, and a wave of feelings hit him like a brick wall. _I'm home…_ he thought. At once he began his climb to the top floor with each step creaking as he ascended the stairs.

Soon he reached the tenth floor. Hesitantly, Danny slowly began to walk to the end of the hall to the door like a scared, small child. Inch by inch, step by step, he got closer and closer to his old home till he arrived. He just stood there staring at the door almost like it was going to rear up and attack him. He bit his lip and lifted his hand to the doorknob. The hand shakily hovered a few centimeters from the knob for a good five minutes. Danny just couldn't bring himself to open the door. A simple task such as turning a doorknob scared him somehow. Whether it was (**a**) the fact that this was his home or (**b**) because of the painful memories of what had transpired there prevented him from doing it, nobody would know. Though it probably was due to answer (**b**).

Finally the boy just forced himself to open the door. His shaky hand at last connected with the cool touch of antiqued brass, and with it turned the knob. He held his breath as he pushed the door open. Before him he saw his home in shambles. Bits and pieces of police tape littered the floor, along with splintered wood, and some broken glass. Most of his old furniture had been taken away and the apartment looked bare. As he walked into the apartment, something else on the floor caught his eye. It was buried under a couple of wooden boards, and some roof tiles and debris. Apparently the roof collapsed while he was gone and now there was a huge gaping hole in the ceiling right in the middle of the apartment. Rain fell through soaking the floor.

Danny briskly walked over to the debris and started clawing at it to get to the bottom. Was it really what he thought was under there? All the while, as he clawed his way to the bottom of the pile it made him think of the cemetery. Thinking of the graveyard sent shivers up and down his spine. He wasn't ready to go back. Not yet, there was something that he needed to do, he felt it in all of his being, but he just didn't know it yet. At last he cleared the pile and what he saw had a tear running down his pale face.

It was a little teddy bear, all worn, with tiny tears where the some stuffing was falling out. The bear had some interesting features. The stuffed animal had wild what-used-to-be-white, Einstein-like hair along with an equally as dirty mustache. There was a string hanging in the back. Danny remembered that it used to talk, saying Einstein inspired sayings. He handled it with the utmost care like it was a long-lost friend. He also remembered it had a name, it was on the tip of his tongue. Now what was it again?

"Bearbert…Bearbert Einstein. This toy, it was…Jazz's, wasn't it?" he spoke softly with sadness wavering in his voice. The thought of his older sister again brought tears to his eyes. She was still in college just starting her second year. She was supposed to go places, do amazing things. She was the psychiatrist of the family, the brain surgeon. His older sister always was smart and studious, and sometimes she did nag too much, but she always deeply cared about her family. Danny cradled the stuffed toy in his arms. It was of course soaked due to the rain, but Danny also saw that it was soaked in sometime other than rainwater, it was dried though and as he inspected it he discovered what it really was. It was blood.

Before when he was ascending the many flights of stairs he realized that the memory flashes had stopped. He was actually glad for this because the remnants of his past and his death pained him so. The memories were haunting him, reminding him of the happy life he once had. But now, the flashes had come back in full force. As he looked on at the dried blood splattered on his sister's favorite possession, the true memory of what occurred a year ago painfully played in his mind.

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_It was the day before Halloween. The eve of all Hallow's Eve. Devil's Night. As people, knew it would be getting pretty dangerous tonight and especially tomorrow night. Mothers kept their children indoors and mostly nobody dared to venture outside, lest they get attacked by some roaming gang member, or get caught up in a drive-by. Danny and Jazz along with Tucker and Sam were getting ready for Halloween. They were setting up decorations, while his parents were busy in the kitchen. Suddenly there was some loud knocking on the door. _

_"Eviction notice!" a scratchy voice yelled. Danny could here his parents opening the door, some arguing, then… POP! POP! POP! Danny's head snapped along with Jazz, Tucker, and Sam's. All together their eyes grew wide with fear. Jazz got up first and ran to the front door. _

_"Like we said girly, eviction notice." A new voice was heard. This one was high and shaky, full of ecstasy and sadistic undertones. A scream rang out through the apartment, and her body was thrown back into the living room. _

_"Jazz!!!!!!!!!" Danny screamed. She was barely moving. She twitched every minute or so, and if you looked close enough you could see blood gushing from her abdomen. Sam gasped and Tucker stood frozen in fear. Danny rushed to his sister's side to see if he could anything, but it was too late. After a full four minutes the twitching stopped and the light in her eyes dimmed. "Jazz…" he whispered mournfully. Four figures suddenly appear in the living room. _

_"Look it's just a bunch of f***ing kids." Says one. He is African American, tall, imposing and has three guns hanging on belt of his leather pants. He smiled a sadistic smile giving the impression he had killed before. _

_"Oh did we lose someone?" said another who patronized a crying Danny who was kneeling by his dead sister's side. He held a gun to his head and cocked it. The other two, one was oriental with a thin face, black eyes, short, cropped black hair, and apparently had a great affinity for knives, and the other with a thick neck, red hair, a beard, and a slight Irish accent suddenly attacked Tucker and Sam, beating them and even stabbing them. They screamed for Danny all the while flailing at their assailants. Anger filled his veins and mustering all the strength he had, he punched the gangster square in the face drawing blood. This crazily dressed gangster and his buddies had dared to kill his sister, possibly even kill his parents, and hurt his friends. He would not stand for it. The gangster retaliated by smacking Danny with the butt of his gun, while Tucker collapsed to the floor dead as a door nail or however the saying goes, beaten to a pulp by the Irishman. _

_"You f***ing b***h!!!" he screamed in almost a high-pitched voice, kind of like the Joker on helium. Danny fell to the ground with a loud thump, blood trickled from his lip. He tried to get up but the gangster repeatedly kicked him in the stomach. If all he had before was a little blood loss, now he was losing it by the gallon. He was coughing up the dark, red liquid while still trying to get up. The gangster then made a motion to the Irishman and the African-American gang member. They each grabbed one of Danny's hands and dragged him to the huge circular window. They had him facing the head gangster, kneeling and still coughing up great amounts of blood. _

_What happens next would change young Daniel Fenton's life forever, or rather end it. The gangster once again pulled his gun on Danny and walked towards him. The gun was only a few centimeters from his heart. Danny was shaking, and tears fell from his face. His head was down, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Sam now lying on the floor still getting beaten by the knife-obsessed, Asian gang member. Their eyes locked for a moment and she whispered_

_"Danny…" _

_"Have a nice fall." The gangster sneered, again patronizing him. He pulled the trigger blasting heavy metal straight into his heart. With a little help from the other gang members, the force of the blast sent Danny through the window. While he was still alive he felt like he was floating, like time had stopped. Broken glass fragments floated all around him, sparkling in the moonlight. To him they almost seemed beautiful. Then, out of the corner of his eye he saw a card. It was a five of hearts, but it didn't look like any regular playing card. The fives were highly stylized and were on the sides of the cards, not the corners, and the hearts…they looked like they were bleeding._

_Then his body became acquainted with the concrete, and everything went dark._

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All this time, while he relived his death, Danny again felt the smack of the gun, which made his head snap to the left, and fall on his back. Then again he felt the hard kicks of the gangster as he tried to get up. He then was kneeling with his arms spread out, and shook as he once again felt the bullet become lodged in his heart. At the climax he then got up, jumped and grabbed the top of the broken window, and swung outside not even feeling the rain fall on his face. He howled out the barely visible moon and the night sky. In a few hours dawn would be on the horizon.

He swung back into the apartment with a backwards somersault. Kneeling once again, he hugged himself. Then he looked at his hands. Slash marks where broken glass connected with his bare palms, started to close up. This explained why he had no wounds when he emerged from his coffin, they had already healed when he was at the gates.

CAW! CAW! CAW!

The white crow suddenly appeared and flew into the apartment. It landed on a broken armchair with exposed springs. The thing stared at Danny expecting him to do something. As always, it was still curious, still impatient. Danny stood up and stared deeply into the glowing green eyes, and at last understood why he was here, why he was brought back.

"I have to avenge them, they deserve justice." He spoke with unwavering fury, yet it also sounded calm and reserved, like the anger was just bubbling under the surface. "Those bastards will pay." He swore. Danny walked to his old room. Faded blue wallpaper covered the walls. He walked to his closet and pulls out a black, sleeveless, leather shirt with three leather belts wrapped around it. It is accompanied by black, leather pants and they were both placed on the bed. Danny sheds his burial clothes, his shredded black suit, and dresses himself in the black outfit. He turned to look at a mask on his old dresser. The mask itself was a pasty white, with black lips, a black line spread across its lips to both of its cheeks, and two black lines that went up and down on both of its eye slits.

Danny remembered that mask. It was a gift from a dear friend. In actuality, that dear friend was Sam. She had given it to him as a gift the day before Devil's Night. It was part of the costume she had gotten for him. In fact, the outfit he was wearing now was the same, exact costume she had given him the day before it all happened…

* * *

_"Come on Danny, promise me you'll wear it." Sam pleaded to Danny. They were sitting on his bed. "You're the only one without a costume, so I thought I'd get you one." If you looked close enough you might have seen her blush. _

_"Um, I guess I'll wear it." He said as he inspected it, he held it in front of him, with the mask resting beside him. _

_"You promise?" She placed a gentle hand on his arm, causing him to turn his head and look at her. To strangers, Sam often looked like another one of those random "hooligans" who often caused trouble. Some people mostly judged her by her appearance, but in reality she was a true friend. She was one of Danny's best friends, and like his family and Tucker, she who was always there when he needed her. He could always depend on her no matter what. _

_She looked deeply into his eyes, with a firm yet pleading stare._

_"Yeah Sam, I promise…"_

* * *

"I promise…" he whispered as he gently held the mask in front of him. Just then, a stroke of inspiration sparked in his mind. He dashed from his room to his sister's and frantically, started to tear through each and every drawer in his dresser. Soon, six drawers had been discarded to the floor and after sifting through each one's contents he found what he was looking for. It was Jazz's stage make-up kit. While at college, she would help out at the theatre's make-up department. Staring into her mirror, and placing the mask into front of him, he started angrily rubbing white paint all over his face.

After he applied the white, he took a paintbrush and slowly dipped it into the deep black. He outlined his eyes first, and then painted two long lines up and down his face. He then painted his lips, a dark, velvet black, and painted a line that spread across his lips to both of his cheeks. While he was busy applying the make-up, the crow quietly slipped into the room. It flew to the bedpost closest to Danny.

CAW! CAW! CAW!

It called, though to some it might have sounded like, "_hUrRy uP_". As always, it still impatient, though at the same time curious. At last, he was finished, now a painted crow. He was now complete, even though he didn't feel like he was. He would not rest until justice had been served. Not until their deaths had been avenged.

"I won't let their deaths be in vain…" he told the crow who intently listened to him speaks. "I **WILL** make those bastards pay." As he said this he noticed something on the floor. It was a playing card. The five of hearts.

* * *

**Ah yes, wasn't that fun? I had some problems writing the death scenes but other than that everything went smoothly. Also, I'm going to start posting artwork for the story on my Deviantart account. So go to my profile and click on the link. My stupid computer won't let me write the address here... so again, go to my profile and click on the link. Oh, and another thing, here's a playlist of songs that inspired me to write this story:**

**~ "Little Things of Venom" by Arid**

**~ "Lane Navachi" by Lunascape**

**and of course...**

**~ "The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning" by The Smashing Pumpkins**

**Also, sorry about the swearing, I wanted to make it sound real enough.**

**Thanks for reading!!! Good Night Everybody!!!!!!! 8D**

**~ Review Please!**

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